The focus of this study is the Civil War in the area from the Wichita Mountains to Fort Cobb to
Fort Arbuckle and from the South Canadian River to the Red River, but first the
Civil War events of North Texas had to be outlined.

Colonel James Bourland organized a regiment for border protection by placing his
men up and down Red River. He was undoubtedly one of the most important
figures in North Texas and Southern Indian Territory during the Civil War. Part of Bourland's sphere of influence extended from Fort Cobb to Fort Arbuckle
to Fort Washita plus the area along the Red River, that was protected by the
7th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 15th, and 20th, and 21st Texas Militia Brigades. Most of
Bourland’s Border Regiment Cavalry was taken from and coordinated with the 21st
Brigade until the summer of 1865.

Texas State
Troops (TST)

This study includes the transcript of existing primary references -- including
misspellings -- found in the Texas Library and Archives that pertain to the
militia organizations of the Texas counties that border the Red River, however some
records are designated by their "brigade" in lieu of "county;" therefore, it is
essential that the brigades be defined. On December 25, 1861 the Texas
Legislature divided the state into 33 militia brigade districts for the purpose
of organizing Texas State Troops (TST) or Texas Militia (TM) for local defense
under the command of the Governor of Texas, not the Confederacy. Each district
was ordered by law to form a brigade of volunteers within its borders. These
volunteers were not allowed to go outside Texas state boundaries as part of the
Confederate Army but were allowed to exit to rendezvous or in hot pursuit of
marauding Indians. Thus they were home guards only. The State of Texas provided
regiments for service in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States (P.A.C.S.).
CSA Brig-General H. E. McCulloch had only Texas State Troops in March, 1864 per the
March 13, 1864 entry of Volume I.

Initially, the militia members were all volunteer with the goal of protecting
the local communities from marauding Indians and jayhawkers; and of course,
after February 1861 many of the militia members dropped out to join the regular
Confederate States Army — about three-fourths of the Texas militia enrollment
went to the regular Confederate Army. Militia members, ages 18-40, were then
drafted to refill the ranks depleted by the exodus to the Confederate Army. By
1863 militia members 18-45 were drafted while some men older than 45
volunteered.

Bourland’s Regiment and the
Confederacy

At the request of the Confederacy, the State of Texas was reorganized and
then funded by the Confederacy. On March 1, 1864, six (6) new military
brigades, replaced the 33-brigade organization. Since Bourland’s
Regiment was accepted into the Confederacy on March 1, 1864, it was no
longer responsible for preventing attacks from the marauding Indians on the
white settlers on the Texas northwestern frontier, but continued
nevertheless. The Confederacy would pay for Bourland’s Regiment to
combat the Union Jayhawkers but not the marauding Indians. CSA
President Jefferson Davis had been the U.S. Secretary of War under President
Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) and knew the cost of keeping one-fifth of the
U.S. Army in posts on the Texas frontier.

The Confederate Army
enrolled 480 members of the Confederate Brush Battalion on November 6, 1863
maybe at Oxford Lake which was probably in Collin County, Texas. The Brush
Battalion is extensively addressed in Volume I
and Appendix K of Volume II. (see vIIppA-337 to A-340.)

East Texans Recruited for the
Protection of the North and West Frontier

Most of the militias formed in the 20th and 21st Brigades after January 1864 are
listed in Appendix J and comprised William Quayle’s command, the 1st Frontier
District Regiment, charged with protecting of the northwestern Texas frontier.
That is, most of the pre-1864 militia listings of the 20th and 21st Brigade are
found in Appendices H and I, but the post-1864 militias of the same counties are
found in Appendix J. Some of the militias formed in late 1863 and 1864 in
the brigades along the Red River were sent to the 21st Brigade as pointed out in
the 7th Brigade’s (Bowie, Cass, and Marion Counties) Colonel M. D. K. Taylor’s
September 24, 1863 letter: "I mustered in to the State Service those present for
the 21st District and turned them over to the Major commanding the Brigade."
(see the "East Texas Recruits Sent to North and West Texas Index".)

Seven Militia Brigades Comprising
Thirty-four Counties

The introductions for Appendices C, D, E, F, G, H, and I list the known
commissioned officers of the of the existing 1861-1864-era records plus the
correspondence of the 7th, 8th, 9th, 14th, 15th, 20th, and 21st Militia
Brigades, respectively. A comparison of the existing militia listings of the
rank-and-file with the commissioned-officers listings shows that about 15
percent of the 1861 Texas militia records of these brigades are missing, while
about 85 percent of the 1862 records are missing, but fortunately only about 20
percent of the 21st Brigade militia listings of 1863 and 1864 are missing. Most
of these records were found in the Texas State Library and Archives that houses
records sent by local residents to the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Office
and the Texas Governor’s Office in Austin, Texas. This study is an effort to
transcribe and organize all of the available Civil War records from the
thirty-four (34) counties of the seven (7) militia brigades.

Reconstructed Militia Records

About 30 percent of the 1861-1865 militia records are missing. Contemporaneous
sources have been scoured for "hints" in identifying militia captains since the
records in the Texas State Library and Archives are filed by "surnames of
militia captains." Several "reconstructed" militia listings were found; for
example, the Pace’s Militia in the 14th Brigade, on page A-149 that was
published in a 1929 newspaper article.

The terms "beat" and "precinct" were used interchangeably in the 1860-era in
North Texas records. Usually in northeastern Texas, each county voting precinct
enlisted the men of their area, got together to elect officers, drilled for a
few hours and then went home. Whereas, on the Texas north and west frontier, the
militia were always on-call, and at any point in time about one-fourth were on
scouting duty. Included in some of these militia records is the amount of
the soldiers' pay.

Expensive Writing Materials

The commanders of the some of the militias were
hard pressed to keep militia rolls, or their rolls updated.
Complicating the maintenance of militia records was the scarcity and the
prohibitive expense of writing materials. In emergencies, some wrote on
cloth.